Our story began on January 13, 2004, at the age of 21Â I learned I was pregnant with my first child. On April 5th, I learned my baby was a girl. I fit none of the typicalÂ risk factors for preeclampsia or eclampsia, except that it was my first pregnancy. My pregnancy was perfect until mid May, I began experiencing terrible headaches, noticeable swelling and pain that would not abate no matter what I did or what kind of medicine I took, and horrendous nausea, vomiting and heartburn.Â I reported these symptoms to the midwife who told me to cut down my salt intakeÂ (interesting thing to say to someone whoÂ can't keep anything down)! I had been readingÂ Â "What to Expect when... Read More

I was very excited to learn I was pregnant with my daughter in Jan. 2011.Â I was then 40 years old.Â I have always been very healthy, so I had no concerns about my own well-being; my concerns were focused solely on my baby's health because I had conceived older than I had initially anticipated.Â Most of my pregnancy was wonderful. The first health issue came at about the 6 month point.Â I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, but I was able to keep this under control throughout the remainder of the pregnancy with diet and did not have to take any medication.Â Later that month and into my 7th month, I began to swell in my legs.Â Because we were having such a hot... Read More

As my story goes, it all started with my first pregnancy back in 2009. I found out I was pregnant at 10 weeks after my ex beat me, so a little over two months when I found out. Everything seemed to be going great: she was just starting to move around and I could feel the little flutters of her flipping around in my tummy. At 15 weeks I ended up in the ER with strong cramps not feeling well, and the cold sweatsâ€¦ I knew something wasnâ€™t right. So I went in; they told me everything was fine and it was just a UTI and sent me on my merry little way.
Couple weeks later I felt like I had the flu, so I was back in the ER. Heartbeat was... Read More

I had preeclampsia which was not noticed and then I had HELLP syndrome. I had not read much about it while I was pregnant. The doctor had told me that my baby was measuring in the 10th percentile at my ultrasound. I had swelling of my one leg and my face, I also had a rash on my back. The doctor said these were all normal. But she had sent me for a more in-depth ultrasound and a stress test. I went for those and before we got the results she asked me to go before the weekend on Friday just in case because the blood flow was right at the dot. Any lower and we would've been induced.
By the time I showed up on Friday, I had been having really bad chest pains where I couldn't even... Read More

I am a survivor of postpartum eclampsia. 5 days after giving birth to our little girl Madysin, I developed the worst migraine ever. Knowing I couldn't take care of her due to the horrible pain, I called my mom. She came over to help, called my ob and he prescribed me pain pills. The next day I felt thumping in my ears, still having the horrible migraine, so we decided to go to the ER. As I was getting dressed, I told my mom I needed to try and brush my teeth. I held my toothbrush in one hand and the toothpaste in another but I started crying... I had no idea how or what to do next something: so simple and easy, I couldn't figure out. I went and sat on the edge of my bed and was telling... Read More

Cam was my second child. My first child was 6 weeks and 4 day early and perfect other then early. So Cam was a week over due and all was fine my water broke and we headed to the hospital. Labor lasted 6 hours and Cam arrived. Things seemed fine. 2 hours later not so much... My blood pressure sky rocketed and I had a stroke and all organs shut down and bled out. My dr. hadÂ no idea what was going on as he had never had a case of post-eclampsia. I was placed in a coma for a week to get my blood pressure under control. The baby was fine me, but not so much. We both made it and are great. I had never checked my blood pressure before having my kids or I would have known. I had low blood... Read More

I got pregnant with my first son at 19, I always wanted to have kids young (mainly because my parents were older when they had me and my younger twin brothers and I wanted to be able to have fun with my kids). The pregnancy was not planned but Ive found that babies come when they want to, not when you want them to.
The pregnancy started completely normally; I never even experienced morning sickness. The only thing scary about it was that I was a tiny baby (5lbs 13oz) and my twin brother were both just under 5lbs and I was only 4ft 10in and 90 lbs when I got pregnant and yet some how I was told I was going to have a 6 or 7 pound baby. I told the doctors that it was not possible... Read More

My husband and I were so excited when we found out we were expecting a little boy.Â My pregnancy had been normal until I hit 24 weeks.Â I noticed that my feet, ankles and hands were getting swollen suddenly.Â I thought it was "normal" pregnancy symptoms since this was my first pregnancy.Â I called my doctor and told her what was going on and was told, "it's normal to experience that with pregnancy".Â A couple days later I started developing headaches that would not go away and some light headedness.Â I thought again, this must be related to being pregnant.Â After a week my feet had doubled in size from the previous week and I did not feel good at all.Â I felt so... Read More

On March 18th, 2012, John (my husband) and I found out we were expecting with our first child. It was only the month before that we started trying and prayed that God would bless our family. Due to my family's history of miscarriages and struggles to become pregnant, I did not expect for this event to be taking place so soon. At one of our first appointments, we found out that the baby would be due on my motherâ€™s birth date, November 22nd, which fell on Thanksgiving Day 2012.... Read More

My pregnancy story starts with an emergency cerclage placed at 23 weeks 3 days for an incompetent cervix; almost 5 weeks of subsequent hospital bedrest; and following that, 7 weeks of strict bedrest at home. My story ends with me being induced at 36 weeks and 3 days due to rapid onset of pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome and staying 5 days in the hospital due to high blood pressure postpartum.
I have had borderline hypertension since before my pregnancy, with it spiking at doctor's appointments due to my white coat syndrome that would cause me severe anxiety when getting my blood pressure taken. Once I relaxed my blood pressure was about 130/80 usually. So at my twice weekly... Read More

I am 20 years old and have a 1 year old son Cooper. He is my first successful pregnancy; my first two were miscarriages.
I was 3 months pregnant when I found out I was pregnant and was overwhelmed. I spent so much time trying to organize all my important appointments and find a hospital to book myself into very quickly. I knew very little about preeclampsia but I did know that some of my family suffered from the condition in multiple pregnancies. When I alerted my obstetrician he informed me that preeclampsia is not a genetic disorder so I needn't worry myself too much about the condition. Two weeks before my 3rd obstetrician appointment I had started to "blow up" through my... Read More

It was about 6 weeks before my due date when I went to the doctor's office, planning to ask to be put on bed rest. I had been gaining weight at about 10 pounds per week, which I knew was not normal. My skin was stretched to its max, and I was in pain all over, constantly. My job required me to be relatively active, and it hurt to even sit at my desk.
When the doctor checked my blood pressure, it was a little high, so they had me stay for observation. I called my husband, since I knew something wasn't right. The doctor came in to tell me they had also found protein in my urine and thought it was the beginning of pre-e. I was admitted into the hospital on Monday, and by Tuesday I... Read More

The stork arrived at the Zabroski's on the August 5th, 2012. We were more than elated to receive such good news of our first child arriving in April 2013.
In November 2012, we received even more amazing news that God has blessed us with baby boy! We instantly named him Bohden Eugene Zabroski, which is Ukrainian for "God's Gift". Little did we know how fitting his name would be. I couldn't wait to decorate his room with all my pinterest ideas. I put together pennants for his room decorations. It was all finally starting to come... Read More

My name is Angela and I got pregnant with my son Ayden when I was 18.Â I was an active person before I got pregnant and would run 3 miles a week.Â My first trimester and half way through my second trimester was great. I had no issues at the time and thought it was going to be an easy pregnancy. I would try and stay active by jogging during my pregnancy but that's what got me into trouble.
I started to notice blood andÂ immediately called the doctor. That same day I was admitted into the hospital for having contractions at 5 months and I was given magnesium sulfate for about a week. I was... Read More

hello my name's Sandra and I had preeclampsia two times. The first time I had preeclampsia, I was pregnant 12 week and I lost my baby boy.Â The second time that I had preeclampsia I had baby girl. I was 26 Weeks pregnant and she weighed only one pound and I don't think one should suffer and it be 8 month and I still haven't had my daughter home. she is still at hospital. I hope all the women who had preeclampsia take care of themselves because this not good to have preeclampsia.

Almost four years ago I gave birth to my amazing son, but not before suffering from Preeclampsia. I began showing signs of preeclampsia around 34 weeks, but wasn't diagnosed until 39 weeks. Fortunately, I went into labor even before my test results came back. I know in my heart that I am meant to be a mother again, but I'm terrified of going through preeclampsia again. I'm hoping to meet other women who have suffered from preeclampsia with the first pregnancy, but have gone on to have a second, third, or even more children.Â

After I had lost Keira our little girl on the 2nd January 2012. I was really upset and I never believed that I would have a wonderful pregnancy with no issues and or problems.
In March 2012, once my gynae had come back from maternity leave for having her baby the same day I lost mine,she gave me a call. And she told me I should wait at least a year before I try again to fall pregnant. I had done a lot of reading and checking this forum for answers as to how long I should wait to try again. All I ever wanted in the whole wide world was to become a MOM.
At my check-up with the stand in gynae I asked him how long should I take to start trying again..... He answered me and... Read More

The majority of my pregnancy was wonderful.Â I had kept up with my workouts, ate healthy, felt great!Â I had no reason to think that this pregnancy would be any different with my first.Â All my tests were coming back normal, I was gaining the right amount of weight and the baby seemed to be moving all over the place.Â At 33 weeks pregnant I began to have some abdominal pain that I thought was due to the baby's positioning, or possibly gallbladder.Â I began having the pain more often and mostly through the night.Â I let it go on for about a week until I called my doctor.Â By this time I was 34 weeks and only seeing my doctor every two weeks.Â The office told me to... Read More

I'm soÂ relievedÂ to finally be able to tell my story to people who understand what I went through. No one quite knows how traumatic my birth experience was.
Right after high school I was diagnosed with endometriosis and was told it would be very difficult to conceive if I ever wanted kids. I was heartbroken. A year later I began dating my current boyfriend. We've been together 4 years this month. In December of 2011 I took a pregnancy test because I was late and my boobs were killing me. I didn't think it would be positive, but to my surprise it was!
As the months went on, I had a few bumps in the road. I was 1 in 4 for down... Read More

Little did I know that my Thanksgiving break from the last month of nursing school would be spending admitted to the local hospital by my OB doctor. Looking back, fora few days I wasn't feeling well. Friday I had indigestion, so I thought. Saturday and Sunday I didn't feel right, not much of an appetite and I told my family I felt nauseous. Monday, I would get hot on and off and I thought I had heartburn. The office staff had me go into the office when I called to tell them I was fine, but wanted them to know that yesterday i had the worst "heartburn" ever. I have never had it before so I didn't know what it was suppose to feel like. I told them what I did to try to relieve... Read More

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